Corona Library Today!

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Puddin'head Wilson.  Just tied up with writing the next book and work for Crime & Science Radio.

Today I'll have my last public appearance for the year (and most of the beginning of 2014).  I'll be at the Corona Public Library at 2 PM.

Here's the address:
650 S. Main St, Corona, CA 

I'll be in the High Desert Room.

See you there!

Mark Twain and Fingerprints, part 2

How did Mark Twain learn about fingerprints almost a decade before Sir Francis Galton’s Finger Prints was published in 1892?

As far as I can tell, the answer is, no one knows for sure.  Let’s look at a few of the possibilities.

First, some general background on the history of criminal identification.

Throughout the 19^th century, police departments were established and methods of catching criminals became more formalized.  (You can learn more about this by listening to my interview with Leslie S. Klinger for Crime and Science Radio.) Science and technology were used in ways they had never been used before to aid authorities in determining what had happened at crime scenes, the evaluation of evidence, and the identification of criminals.

Eugène François Vidocq – portrait by Achille Devéria

At the beginning of these changes is Eugène François Vidocq (1775-1857), one of the most colorful and fascinating characters in the history of law enforcement.  Vidocq was a former criminal who established the French Sûreté Nationale, and began the first systematic efforts to identify criminals and keep records on them.  Vidocq pioneered so many new methods of understanding and apprehending criminals — including describing modus operandi, using the science of ballistics, taking footwear impressions with plaster casts, establishing the first private detective agency, doing undercover work and more — he is considered to be the father of modern criminology.  His autobiography was widely read, and his life served as an inspiration for characters in works by Balzac (Pere Goriot), Hugo (Les Miserables), and Dickens (Great Expectations) and his work was lauded by Poe and Melville.  

Unfortunately, Vidocq’s card system of known criminals depended in large part on Vidocq’s own remarkable memory.  It became unmanageable once he was no longer part of the Sûreté.  The task of reorganizing the files eventually fell to Alphonse Bertillion (1853-1914) — there were over five million of them when he was given the assignment.

Bertillon's self-portrait as a mugshot, 1900. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days) and it was first published before 1978 without complying with U.S. copyright formalities or after 1978 without copyright notice and it was in the public domain in its home country on the URAA date (January 1, 1996 for most countries).

He improved the "mug shot" — taking the work away from commercial photographers who often failed to capture useful images and implementing a standardized way to photograph arrestees and record information about them.  He also standardized and improved methods of crime scene photography.  What he is most famous for, however, is the biometric system that bears his name, Bertillionage.

Bertillion's father was a statistician and anthropologist, and a colleague of Belgian mathematician and social statistician Lambert Quetelet. Quetelet had calculated that the chances against two people being the same height were four to one. Bertillion reasoned that adding precise, additional measurements would bring the likelihood of two people having those same measurements into the neighborhood of 1 in 4,000,000.  A filing system based on those measurements would make it easier to locate information on criminals who matched them.

Although his ideas were initially rejected by the chief of police, he was eventually given a chance to prove them, and did so very successfully, identifying hundreds of arrestees who gave aliases with previous records.  By 1884, his system was adopted throughout the French prison system. Soon his system was quickly adopted in much of Europe and the U.S. (England was a holdout).  

As you can see from the illustration below, found in Identification Anthropométrique, his 1893 book on his method, these many measurements required a lot of precise work by the measurer and a degree of cooperation from the arrestee that might be difficult to obtain.

Frontisepiece from Alphonse Bertillon's ''Identification anthropométrique'' (1893), demonstrating the measurements one takes for his anthropometric identification system. Category:Anthropometry.  This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days) and it was first published before 1978 without complying with U.S. copyright formalities or after 1978 without copyright notice and it was in the public domain in its home country on the URAA date (January 1, 1996 for most countries).

This was the state of criminal identification at about the time Twain wrote "A Thumb-Print."  

Fingerprints however, were not unknown.

I mentioned a few ancient references in yesterday's post.

In more recent times, fingerprints had been observed and written about by Europeans in the late 17the century.  In 1684, Dr. Nehemiah Grew published a paper on these friction ridges in the proceedings of the Royal Society of London. An anatomy professor at the University of Bologna, Marcello Malpighi wrote a treatise in 1686, and noted fingerprint ridges, spirals and loops.  Neither Grew nor Malpighi — nor any others making similar observations — spoke of the individuality or unchanging nature of fingerprints, and no one had yet suggested their use for identification.

In 1858, a British magistrate in India, Sir William James Herschel (1833-1917), began requiring handprints on contracts, but did not do so based on any scientific study — he was essentially relying on local superstitious beliefs about leaving one's handprint on a piece of paper.  As his collection grew, though, he became convinced that fingerprints were unique and permanent.  

To my mind, one of the most interesting possibilities of a source for Twain's interest is French, in part because in his story his narrator credits a French prison keeper for telling him about thumbprints. 

As noted by fingerprint expert Ed German on his website, in 1863, "Professor Paul-Jean Coulier, of Val-de-Grâce in Paris, published his observations that (latent) fingerprints can be developed on paper by iodine fuming, explains how to preserve (fix) such developed impressions and mentions the potential for identifying suspects' fingerprints by use of a magnifying glass."

Twain spoke French — although he joked about his abilities

In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.

- The Innocents Abroad

— he translated The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County into French.

Another possible source of information was published in Nature  in 1880, closer to the time of the publication of Life on the Mississippi.  

Dr. Henry Faulds, the British Surgeon-Superintendent of Tsukiji Hospital in Tokyo, had noticed fingerprint marks on ancient Japanese pottery and began to study them.  He sent notes to Charles Darwin about fingerprints, who passed them on to his cousin, Francis Galton, who, perhaps distracted by his own many scientific pursuits, passed the letter on to the Royal Anthropological Society and apparently (and unfortunately) forgot about it.

 In 1880, Faulds published a paper in Nature suggesting that fingerprints could be used to catch criminals and a means by which this could be done — and included a few ideas that were less scientific, such as the possibility of determining race through a fingerprint.*  

Not long after this article appeared, a letter from Herschel appeared in the same publication, telling of his use of fingerprints in place of  signatures for over twenty years, and politely doubting the ability to use them to determine race.

In 1886, three years after the publication of Twain's tale and during a time when Bertillonage was making headlines, Faulds offered his system to Scotland Yard, which turned him down.  Two years later, delivering a paper before the Royal Society on fingerprints, Galton erroneously credited Herschel as being prior Faulds in suggesting the forensic use of fingerprints.  This led to a bitter controversy which still finds various partisans slugging it out verbally.

There is one more possible source of information for Twain.  In 1877, Thomas Taylor (1820–1910), a microscopist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, gave a lecture concerning prints and their possible applications concerning crime. Taylor proposed the idea of using bloody prints found at crime scenes as a means to identify suspects. The lecture was published in the July 1877 issue of The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science (Ashbaugh, 1999, p 26).  An important lecture, though you'll seldom find mention of this in histories of fingerprinting, and whether Twain knew of the lecture or the journal is unknown.

Well...I haven't gotten to Puddin'Head Wilson yet, so we'll go for part 3!

*There are those who are now researching methods which would supply phenotypes and other information about an individual from the oils left behind with a fingerprint, but this is not, of course, what Faulds envisioned.

Some additional links
Jim Fisher's excellent article about Bertillion.
The NCJRS's publication on fingerprinting includes a wonderful history section.

Mark Twain and Fingerprints: Part 1

Mark Twain, detail of photo by Mathew Brady, February 7, 1871, about 12 years before the publication of Life on the Mississippi.      

“When I was a youth, I knew an old Frenchman who had been a prison-keeper for thirty years, and he told me that there was one thing about a person which never changed, from the cradle to the grave – the lines in the ball of the thumb; and he said that these lines were never exactly alike in the thumbs of any two human beings.”

— From “A Thumb-Print and What Came of It,” one of the stories serialized in Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi, published in 1883.

Today on Crime and Science Radio, during my interview with Leslie S. Klinger about Sherlock Holmes and forensic science, we briefly mentioned Mark Twain's use of fingerprints.  (You can listen to the show here:)

Online Books Radio at Blog Talk Radio with Suspense Radio on BlogTalkRadio

I wanted to expand on that mention of Twain, and it seems it will take more than one blog post to do it.  So here's Part 1!

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was one of the earliest writers to make use of fingerprints in a story.  If you mention this to his devoted readers, most will quickly say, “Yes!  In Puddin’head Wilson!”

I will get to Puddin’head Wilson a little later, but it is not the first work in which Twain uses the uniqueness of fingerprints as an element of the story’s plot.  That honor goes to “A Thumb-Print,” one of the stories in Life on the Mississippi. In it, a thumbprint leads to the identification of a murderer. For a number of reasons, Twain’s use of fingerprints in “A Thumb-Print” is remarkable. 

In 1883, as shown by the passage quoted above, Twain wrote that a thumbprint was unique to an individual, and did not change. 

These are two essential characteristics.

Solving crimes is in part a matter of identification of the individuals involved and the exclusion of individuals not involved:  These bones belong to this individual, they cannot be the bones of that individual.  This person was here, and not this person.  Here are the people who might have done this.  These are the people who could not have done this.  The  greater the degree to which a trait can be associated with one individual and no others, the stronger proof it offers as evidence.

Let's say there is a bank robbery.  Witnesses say the robber has long, red hair and was wearing dark clothing. 

Police know that millions of people have red hair and a good number of those may also own dark clothing.  A smaller percentage of those millions may have been able to be at the bank at that time, but this will still be a very large group. While the witnesses’ descriptions may be of help in immediately following a suspect from a scene, or prove valuable if the robber is caught some other way, they don't narrow the field much.

One other important element of determining identification is mutability.  Can this trait be changed, or appear to be changed?   In our example above, hair can be dyed and cut, clothing can be easily changed.  So again, the witnesses description quickly loses value.

“In these days, we photograph the new criminal, and hang his picture in the Rogue’s Gallery for future reference; but that Frenchman, in his day, used to take a print of the ball of a new prisoner’s thumb and put that away for future reference.  He always said that pictures were no good — future disguises could make them useless; ‘The thumb’s the only sure thing,’ said he; ‘you can’t disguise that.’ And he used to prove his theory too, on my friends and acquaintances; it always succeeded.” 

— from "A Thumb-Print and What Came of It."

Today we would ask, “Did the killer leave any DNA or fingerprints at the scene of the crime?”  Thanks to news stories, high profile cases, and television dramas about forensic science, we accept these forms of evidence, often without thinking much about them.

Most of us are aware that DNA was not discovered by scientists until the mid-20^th century and wasn’t in use forensically until late in that century.  We know that the use of fingerprints has been around longer, but have little idea of the story of the development of their use to catch and convict criminals.  

At the time Twain wrote "A Thumb-Print," if you talked to the average person on the street and said that if a criminal touched something with an ungloved hand, he might leave a uniquely identifying mark that could lead to his conviction, you'd have probably been met with disbelief.  This would have sounded like voodoo to most of his contemporaries.  

When Mark Twain was born in 1835, fingerprints were unknown in the western world as a means of catching criminals.  Although a treatise on the potential for using them in this way written in about 200 B.C. in China, and we know that fingerprints were used as signatures in Babylon dating back to 1792-1750 B.C., by the early 19th century these were forgotten lore in most of the world.  During most of Twain’s lifetime, there was no system in place anywhere for the scientific, forensic use of fingerprints. 

Until very late in the 19^th century, even those who were studying scientific approaches to catching criminals were largely unaware of the potential of fingerprints, and no system of classification of fingerprints had been established in law enforcement organizations.

The first scientific treatise on the subject to be written in English and to become widely known was not published until 1892 — Sir Francis Galton’s Finger Prints.

1892.  Nine years after the publication of “A Thumb-Print.”

Tomorrow:  
How did Twain know?  
More on the history of the forensic use of fingerprints. 
And links for those who want to know more.

Crime and Science Radio Episode 1, "Hollywood Storytelling: Science Fact or Make Believe?"

Dressed in a uniform typically worn by crime scene investigators, this scientist is prepared to perform the famous and reliable Taste Test on an Unknown Substance.

As I mentioned in my last post, Dr. D.P. (Doug) Lyle and I are hosting a new online radio show, "Crime and Science Radio," in connection with Suspense Magazine.  "Hollywood Storytelling: Science Fact or Make Believe?" is our first episode, and it is now up and available for listening.


All of us who watch forensic science shows on television, who watch movies about crimes, and who read crime fiction have ideas about how crime scenes are processed, what labs can do, how police and forensic scientists and medical examiners behave during investigations.  We believe we know what forensic labs look like even though few of us have been inside one, and we think we know what forensic science can determine about evidence.  We believe we know how deaths are investigated and what sort of experts are doing that work.

Most likely, we're wrong.

Our first show explores some of the most common myths and misconceptions about crime scene processing, death investigation, and forensic science that come from ideas we may have received from Hollywood.


There are three easy ways to listen to the show.  With your computer's sound on:

1) click on the link to Crime and Science Radio, then click on the "listen now"button.

2) Since the show is a podcast, you can also find us on iTunes, which makes it easy to listen to on a computer, smart phone, or iPad. In the iTunes store, search for Crime and Science Radio, and either click on the icon for Suspense Magazine, or look for the show from Suspense Radio in the search results.  The episodes are free.  If you subscribe, you'll get all our shows and Suspense Magazine's author interviews delivered as soon as they become available.

3) go to BlogTalkRadio's Website and listen to the show here.


After each episode, we'll be posting useful links and other information that will help you further explore that episode's topics.   I've posted the ones from the first episode below.

I just finished recording the next episode, with Sherlock Holmes expert Leslie S. Klinger.  We'll be talking about forensic science in Sherlock Holmes, and taking a historical view of criminal investigation in the age of the Victorians.  Episode 2 will be available starting Saturday, September 21 at 10 AM Pacific Time.

Places you can learn more about the topics discussed on Episode 1:

Crime Lab Project Backlog Quiz

Crime Lab Project Death Quiz

Terri Sundquist on Promega Connections about Crime Science Investigation Myths

ProPublica Post-Mortem series—an excellent look at reality of death investigation

Lee Lofland on 10 Forensic Myths Spread by TV

Racine Journal-Times Article on the CSI Myth

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Real-World Forensic DNA Expert Lists “The Top 10 TV Crime Lab Myths”

“Ridiculous Photo Enhancement Scene from the TV Show CSI”

“The Cliche of Enhancing Images in Movies”

Infographic: CSI Miami vs Reality

National Forensic Science Technology Center CSI Effect Program

An informative PDF document about Forensic Science Myths and Facts from the NFSTC can be downloaded here

National Institute of Justice: A Guide for General Crime Scene Investigation

Forensic Talk: Crime Scene Procedures

CSI: Organization and Procedures for Search Operations

CSI: Documentation Procedures

Forensic Psychology: Guide To crime Scene Investigations

Autopsy: Wikipedia

NIH: Visible Proofs: Autopsy Videos (Warning: Graphic)

Interfire: Example of an Autopsy Report

Crime Scene Evidence Files: Summary autopsy Report

Photo above: 

© Simone Van Den Berg | Dreamstime.com

I'm excited to announce that D.P. Lyle and I will be hosting an online radio program, Crime and Science Radio, part of Suspense Magazine Radio.

I'll have more news about that soon, but in the meantime, plan to listen to our first program on Saturday, September 7.

In other news, in addition to the new short story about Frank Harriman, "The Privileged," I've completed a short story about Irene Kelly, "The Unacknowledged."  Both stories are set when they were younger and not yet met.

For those of you who are fans of The Messenger, I've also completed a new short story about Tyler Hawthorne, "Little Birds," set near the time of the American Civil War.

So yes, three stories about three characters you know, giving you a chance to see them in earlier times.  When we are closer to their release dates in 2014, I'll give you more details.

In the meantime, you can always read "The Amiable Miss Edith Montague," in MWA's The Mystery Box.  I loved these characters so much, I hope to return to them soon.

To answer the two questions I am asked most often:  I am at work on a standalone thriller, a book that is not a part of any series.  Yes, I do plan to write more Irene Kelly books.

News and so on...

Just returned home from two back-to-back family trips, one the tri-annual reunion of the Moriarty family (yes, fellow Sherlockians, I am aware -- there is also a John Watson in the family tree), the other to visit my husband's family near Buffalo.  I have been working even on the road, but on this day of laundry and washing out a suitcase attacked by a loose tube of toothpaste (yes, we usually put such things in plastic bags, etc.) and sorting through mail, I have looked up and seen that I am again long overdue in posting here.

So some news, with more to come:

I've written a supernatural story for a new collection edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner, Games Creatures Play.  The story I wrote is about dodgeball and stolen children -- in the sense of those taken by the fae -- read the haunting W.B. Yeats poem, "The Stolen Child" to see what I mean.  These lines from the poem

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

are quoted in the story, which (mostly) takes place during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

As we get closer to the pub date of April 2014, I'll have more to say, a picture of the cover art, and so on -- but since anthologies can be hard to find if you wait too late to order, I thought I'd give you a heads up now.


I've recently completed a story about Frank Harriman.  When you read it, you'll get to see Frank as a rookie, just before he meets Irene.  As soon as I have word from my publisher, I'll let you know when it will be available.

Other stories are listed on the short story page of my Website.

Events:

I will be speaking at the Orange County Sisters in Crime meeting on July 28th.

On October 19th I'll be at the Forensic Foray sponsored by the Arctic Cliffhangers, the Alaska Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Next year, in March I'll be at Left Coast Crime 2014.  Jerrilyn Farmer and I will be teaching the Writing Workshop there, which has limited space available -- sign up now.

And in November, I'll be at Bouchercon in Long Beach, California!

Photo credit: Scott Liddell http://www.scottliddell.com

Holy Smoke

I can't believe I haven't posted here since December.  Every time I come to this page thinking it has only been a few weeks since I posted something, I'm reminded that just thinking about doing something does not get it done.  Now in a better ordered world, there would be hardworking author elves, but alas...

So a few notes and a little news:

My newest story, "The Amiable Miss Edith Montague," appears in Mystery Writers of America Presents The Mystery Box, edited by Brad Meltzer.  This anthology is available now in hardcover, paperback, and ebook editions.

I enjoyed seeing Brad, R.L. Stine, James O. Born, and many of the other contributors at The Mysterious Bookshop in New York for the launch of the anthology.  The event was SRO -- here's Brad on a ladder talking to the crowd about the book.  The camera does not capture how gracious he's being.  Brad writes dynamite thrillers, hosts an intriguing television show (History Channel's Decoded), and is an Eisner Award-winning comic book author.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  He's also one of the most generous people I know in a generous community of writers (my genre rocks) and gives back in so many ways.  For example, through this charity.

The launch took place during Edgars Week, at the end of which Mystery Writers of America gave out the Edgar Awards at a ceremony held at the Grand Hyatt.  This year, I handed a Raven Award to the most deserving Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, which also celebrated its 20th anniversary this month.  I am so happy that MWA has named Charlaine Harris as its new president!

At the banquet I was seated with Leslie S. Klinger and friends, among them Brian Skupin and Kate Stine of Mystery Scene.

Thinking of Sherlockian friends, I just realized, to my dismay, that this dearth of posts means I have not yet talked about the thrill of being "given a shilling" by the Baker Street Irregulars.  That must have a post of its own!

You may have read in the New York Times that in March I had the honor of officiating at the wedding of Twist Phelan and Jack Chapple.   Twist, who won the Thriller Award for her short story "A Stab in the Heart," has a new story in the July 2013 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, "Footprints in Water."  You can read an excerpt from it here.

Tim and I also had loads of fun at Left Coast Crime in Colorado Springs, a well-organized conference.  Have you signed up for LCC in Monterey next year?

I also see I missed posting about another adventure which deserves a post of its own, my appearance (is it an appearance on radio?) on The Dinner Party Show in December.  I was on the program with Marcia Clark and hosts Christopher Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn.  It's a cross between a riot and a royal banquet.  A particularly hilarious riot/banquet.  You can listen to our episode online here.

Ways to keep up with me during the long wait between days when I say, "I need to blog" and the days when I actually blog?

Twitter:  @jan_burke

I'm on Facebook, and I now have a fan Page on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/WriterJanBurke

And I usually tweet every weekday for @crimelabproject

Oh, and yes, I am writing a book and finishing a short story.  The book is a standalone novel, the short story is about Frank Harriman.  More news...well, if not soon, eventually!

This and that

"Almost Midnight" by Grafixar from morguefile.com 

Collected end of the year notes...

I've posted over on the Crime Lab Project's blog, on the topic of forensic science as a local matter and the need to take action at that level.  I hope you'll take the time to read it.

I have some exciting news that I can't quite announce yet, but hope to give you near the start of the New Year.  Sorry for the tease.  Can't help myself.


January is dedicated to writing, although I will be getting out of the house a couple of times for literary events.  I am so honored and pleased to be returning to the Baker Street Irregulars and Friends Weekend in January in New York City.  Several of the events scheduled for this "annual gathering of the oldest Literary Society dedicated to Sherlock Holmes" are open to the public.

On Saturday, January 26, from 11 AM to 4 PM I'll be part of the "Mystery on the Menu Luncheon" at 
the Cerritos Library.  This event sells out quickly, so visit the library's site to purchase a ticket.


As some of you know, we lost our beloved Belgian Shepherd, Britches, at the beginning of November.  He was eighteen, which is very old for his breed, and every one of those years was one we are thankful for.  He was a big sweet, wonderful dog.

Jan with Britches as a pup. Photo by Steven Cvar.

Wylie, our younger dog, was lonely and mopey without him, and we believe that in general dogs are happier when they are in a household with at least one other dog.

Wylie ©2011 by Jan Burke

So we adopted a one-year-old shepherd mix we've named Jolie (you can hear it pronounced here) from the Seal Beach Animal Care Center, a wonderful facility.  She a sweet and happy soul, and we love this new addition to our family.

Jolie ©  2012 by Jan Burke.

 One last thing before I go back to work on my manuscript -- thank you.  Thank you so much for your interest in my work, for buying the books and coming to signings and events, for telling your friends about them.  I deeply appreciate it!  I hope that 2013 brings you all the best.

The Baker Street Irregulars Weekend!

I'm so looking forward to a special set of events to be held in New York City next month, as the Baker Street Irregulars meet to celebrate the 159th Birthday of Sherlock Holmes.  I attended last year (and return) thanks in large part to my friend Leslie S. Klinger, whose amazing New Annotated Sherlock Holmes has provided me with many hours of pleasure and loads of new information about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels and stories.  I will add that these three volumes make a terrific gift for anyone who loves Sherlock Holmes.

I'll be reviewing mine over the next few weeks, happily preparing for this set of events.  Most are open to all Sherlockians.  Some, like the Baker Street Babes charity ball, are already sold out, but check out the BSI Weekend site for the full list of celebrations.

Random Advice for New Writers: Agents

A post today on Facebook by my friend and esteemed colleague James W. Hall — who has shown himself to be very generous when it comes to helping other writers — made me realize that I haven't posted advice for new writers in a while.

So I'm going to mutter random advice for as long as I can stand it, and if we're both lucky, maybe if you're struggling and confused and wandering, I won't do anything to worsen those conditions.

I'm going to talk about writing itself a little later on, but 20 years in this line of work has allowed me to see that many new writers are convinced that they write beautifully and wonderfully and in a fresh and exciting way and so really, they just want to know how to get paid a ton of money in recognition for their genius.  Or at least quit their day job. Never mind the art and craft — "Nailed it!" they say as they reread their first manuscript — they want to know about the business side of writing.

So they ask, as do those with a little less self-assurance, how do I find an agent?

As I've said before, there is no licensing body for agents.  Anyone can say, "I'm an agent," and put it on a business card or Web site.   Some unscrupulous folks figured out a long time ago that about a zillion suckers — each with no head for business and each too enamored of his or her own work — are dreaming of being published writers and famous and so on, and if you could make a buck-fifty off of each of them, you'd be wealthier than any of them will ever be.

Which is my windy way of saying you don't need an agent -- you need the right agent. 

You would not go into the business of selling bicycles without understanding that they have two wheels.  Or stay in that business if you didn't understand much, much more about it.  So if you had a burning desire to sell bikes, you'd study up.  So if you want to be published, and don't want to strictly rely on dumb luck and all the prayers your mother said for you, study up on the business side of writing, too.

This idea may make you feel afraid.  Afraid is the natural state of many writers, so don't let that paralyze you.  Just move ahead in whatever increments you can manage.

So, where to start?

I can't say this often enough:  read SFWA's Writer Beware Website.  Twice.  Don't get hung up on the fact that you may not be writing in SFWA's genres -- seriously, this site is a major public service for all writers.

You can also learn a lot about agents from the best known professional organization for literary agents, AAR, whose members agree to abide by the AAR Canon of Ethics.  Members of AAR agree not to charge fees for reading manuscripts.  They have a section of their site that accurately and succinctly describes how the process of finding an agent usually works:  FAQ about agents -- and answers.

Responding to James W Hall's question, the fabulous Jeff Abbott recommended the blog of former literary agent Nathan Bransford, now a successful author.  I've just taken a quick look at this, but it seems to be well-designed and has accessible and meaningful advice from someone who has been on both sides of the equation.  An A-Z of publishing.  Go to the left sidebar on his home page and look through Publishing Essentials.

And although Miss Snark hasn't posted anything to her blog since 2007, there is still a lot to be learned from her snarky, tough love blog.  Look at the categories on the right.  The crapometer is a teaching tool, ladies and gentlemen.

You can also find an agent at a reputable conference, and I'll talk more about that and other agent info in another post.  But you have some reading to do.  Take a look at the four sites above.  And read books by James W. Hall and Jeff Abbott.  They've been good to you today.  And you can learn to write better novels by studying what they do.

Trick rider

When I was about 8 or 9, my parents gave me a camera.  This is from one of the first rolls of film, which at that time, really was a roll.  So I think I'll have some fun posting a few of my early experiments.

This one was probably taken by my mother or father.

Yes -- pay no attention to the kickstand.  But this does give a little insight into the kind of kid I was.

Maybe that should be past tense.

As for news -- Marcia Clark, Chris Rice, and I are going to try a new method of hold a chat, since our last one -- fun as it was -- had a few technical hitches.  To gain access to the chat, like my Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/WriterJanBurke

So "like" it before October 11th, the date of the chat!


And I'll see some of you at Bouchercon very soon!

Hello from the worst blogger ever

Well, okay, not ever.  And I suppose other criteria for worst would leave me far out of the running.

But I have been terrible about keeping up here.

So here's a little news!


1) There's a new trade paperback of Bones available now.


2) I have a fan page on Facebook!  Yes, finally!  And since it will be a little easier to update than the Website or blog, news will probably be there first.  You can "like" it if you are on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/WriterJanBurke

3) Those of you on Facebook are invited to participate in a chat with Marcia Clark, Christopher Rice, and me on Thursday, August 30th at 3 PM Pacific, 4 PM Mountain, 5 PM Central, 6 PM Eastern time in the U.S., 11 PM GMT.  Marcia's hosting the first one, so just "like" her Facebook page -- if you have trouble with the link, then just search for "thatMarciaClark," which is also her Twitter handle.
She's already got some great questions in mind, so hope to see you there.

4) I will be at Bouchercon in Cleveland!
This event -- fewer than 80 days away -- is nearly sold out, so if you want to attend, now is the time to sign up.

5) Other schedule updates can be found on my Website.  The schedule page is at
http://janburke.com/schedule.php

6) For those who may not know, I'm also on Twitter.  Follow me at Jan_Burke --
http://twitter.com/Jan_Burke

A Visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial

On the Sunday evening after Malice Domestic, I met with two friends and their spouses for dinner.  In addition to being friends, Paul Sledzik and Marilyn London are forensic anthropologists who have helped me a great deal with research.  Without their help and that of others in their profession, Bones could not have been written.  That aside, they are among my favorite people on the planet.

They asked me about my itinerary now that Malice was over.  I told them that I would be getting up early the next morning and driving to the Pittsburgh area, meeting a cousin for lunch, and then going on to a set of events for the Festival of Mystery in Oakmont, PA, sponsored by the Mystery Lovers Bookshop.  Early the next morning, I would head back to the Washington, D.C. area, to catch an afternoon flight from Dulles.

"Oh, you'll be going near the Flight 93 Memorial," Paul said.

From others, these might have been casually spoken words.  But Paul and Marilyn were on the D-MORT team sent to Stonycreek Township, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  As clearly as any of us remember that time, few of us think of it as they do.  I know they and other responders were deeply affected by their work.  I also know that as they worked, those at the site of the crash of Flight 93 carried an awareness of the heroism of the passengers and crew.

United Airlines Flight 93 was one of the four planes hijacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001.  It is believed that the plan of the terrorists was to crash it into the U.S. Capitol, where Congress was in session.

Because of heavy traffic, the flight's takeoff was delayed about 25 minutes.  By 9:28 AM -- the probable time the terrorists incapacitated Captain Jason M. Dahl and First Officer Leroy Homer and took over the plane -- the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had already taken place.  When the passengers on the flight called their loved ones, they learned of those events, and determined to do all they could to regain control of the plane.  We know from their conversations with their loved ones that they took a vote and rushed the cockpit.  In the ensuing struggle, the plane crashed at 10:03 AM into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone aboard.  Because of their courageous actions, countless other lives were spared.

As great as our grief is for those lost on that horrible day, as hard as it is to think of what they must have endured, we can only imagine the chaos and further pain caused if the plans of the terrorists aboard Flight 93 had succeeded.  The U.S. Capitol is only eighteen flight minutes away from the crash site.  They were -- we all were -- eighteen minutes from what would have undoubtedly been an act of mass murder on an even larger scale.  These passengers and flight attendants made their decisions and fought back and sacrificed their lives all within about thirty minutes.  In that much time, they changed the way the story of Flight 93 ended.

So after talking about it with Paul and Marilyn,  I decided to visit the memorial.  On Tuesday, as I drove from Pittsburgh toward Virginia, I exited the turnpike and let the GPS take me most of the way, enjoying the scenery until I lost faith in satellite guidance, and followed signs to the entrance.

For those who have never visited the Western Pennsylvania countryside, let me tell you that it is incredibly beautiful.  Rolling green hills, mountains, sunlit valleys, woodlands filled with tall trees of every shade of green.  There are rivers and creeks and covered bridges, small towns and big wooden barns.  Good and helpful people.  Its history until recently had been most closely tied to the founding of the country, not the confounding of modern terrorists.  It is a place of serenity.

So is the memorial.

The development of the memorial is still underway, and I found myself glad to visit it in its current phase.  In some ways it matches the wound — not quite raw, not fully healed.  A straightforward, stark place of honor and remembrance.

Beyond the black wings of a low-walled pathway is a field that stretches toward a stand of hemlocks.

There is a boulder there, by which small flags -- the type you might see in a cemetery on Memorial Day -- have been placed.

It is a cemetery -- the remains of the crew and passengers still lie in this field.

There are a few places along the pathway where niches are cut and memorial items are left by visitors.

 A butterfly rested near one of these while I was visiting the site.

The pathway leads to the white marble Wall of Names.

Here are the names, each name carved on one stone (clicking on the names below will take you to brief articles about each person, published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2001):

The crew:
Captain Jason M. Dahl
First Officer Leroy Homer
Flight Attendant Lorraine G. Bay
Flight Attendant Sandy Waugh Bradshaw
Flight Attendant Wanda Anita Green
Flight Attendant CeeCee Ross Lyles
Flight Attendant Deborah Jacobs Welsh

The passengers:
Christian Adams
Todd M. Beamer
Alan Anthony Beaven
Mark Bingham
Deora Frances Bodley
Marion R. Britton
Thomas E. Burnett, Jr.
William Joseph Cashman
Georgine Rose Corrigan
Patricia Cushing
Joseph DeLuca
Patrick Joseph Driscoll
Edward Porter Felt
Jane C. Folger
Colleen L. Fraser
Andrew (Sonny) Garcia
Jeremy Logan Glick
Kristin Osterholm White Gould
Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas and Unborn Child
Donald Freeman Greene
Linda Gronlund
Richard Guadagno
Toshiya Kuge
Hilda Marcin
Waleska Martinez
Nicole Carol Miller
Louis J. Nacke II
Donald Arthur Peterson
Jean Hoadley Peterson
Mark David Rothenberg
Christine Ann Snyder
John Talignani
Honor Elizabeth Wainio


They came from as far away as Japan and Germany, as near as New Hope, Pennsylvania.  They were moderate, liberal, and conservative.  They were gay and straight.  They were young and old and somewhere in between.  They were headed home and beginning new adventures.  They were returning from funerals, coming home to newborns, and going to retrieve the remains of a recently killed loved one.  They loved their children, wives, family members, friends, and lovers.  They had hobbies, interests, plans, goals and dreams.  They wrote poems and books and created cartoons.  They did good in the world long before they boarded Flight 93.

As they halted whatever the terrorists planned, their own plans came to a halt.  We move on as they no longer do, but we remember them in a field in Pennsylvania.

I urge you to visit the memorial if you can.  It is a lovely place of green grass, trees, and water. A place of wind and birdsong.  I recorded the sounds, and you can listen to a snippet of that at the link below.  I hope it brings a little of this field of remembrance to you.

Sounds of wind and birdsong from the Flight 93 Memorial